The new cultivar is a chance seedling selection by the inventor, Catharina Maria Hoekstra-Arisz, a citizen of the Netherlands. The new variety was discovered at a commercial nursery in Beverwijk, The Netherlands, in October 2003, by the inventor growing in the ground among a field of mixed commercial varieties of Symphoricarpos. The parent varieties are unknown.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar ‘SOFIE’ by vegetative cuttings was first performed in March 2006, at a commercial nursery in Beverwijk, The Netherlands and has shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.